Tag Archives: toddler

When Did Our Toddler Get So Smart?

12/04/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

We had just come to terms that our baby is toddler, but now she’s transforming into a smart/tricky toddler of sorts. Smart, because she’ll call out all letters of the alphabet, numerous colors, stack blocks (instead of just destroy) and speak in complete sentences sometimes.

In Mary Katherine from SNL style – Super~~star~~ Smart!

Tricky, because, well, she’s figuring out how to delay things at night when it’s bedtime, and how to use her cuteness to get her way.

Smiling on kitchen floor — Stop what you’re doing and just play with me!

But make no mistake, Going Mom and I are not complaining. We couldn’t be me happy to see how our little girl is growing physically and intellectually. But also make no mistake, it drives us insane at times!

Mainly, the nighttime toddler delay tactics. She has this thing where she likes to do a “jump” into her pajamas after bathtime, so Mommy will let her jump once, but then she says “Again”, and she goes again. But two is not enough, and she’ll continue going until one of us makes her stop. Some nights, she’ll accept it, other nights, you’d think she’s auditioning for an opera.

Then, we normally only read one book, but now she turns on the bottom lip to try and delay the inevitable; sleep! Well, at least going into her crib. We had a nice few weeks of an easy transition from putting her in the crib and she’d go to sleep soon after, or at least not throw a fit. But now, WOW, this girl makes her demon days look like a cute and cuddly kitten!

When her screams aren’t radiating throughout the house, she’ll pace around her crib and talk to herself. We consider this much better than the alternative, and even nice to see how her brain has developed. Just listen to her talk amongst herself to decide if she wants the blue plate or pink plate tonight.

I stay up at night making the tough decision on whether I want the blue or pink plate tonight too. #terribletwos #toddler #resistance #parenting #sleep

A video posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on Dec 1, 2015 at 6:45am PST

Saying “Blue plate tonight” has become the majority of our daily conversations. I ask her if she wants water, it’s “Blue plate tonight”.

Me: Did you go poop?

Avery: Blue plate tonight.

Me: Do you want to go for a walk to see the moon tonight?

Avery: Blue plate tonight.

Me: *Silence*

Avery: Blue plate tonight, blue plate tonight, bluuuuueee plate toniiiiiight!

You get the drift.

Don’t get me wrong, she says more than Blue plate tonight, but those three words are repeated all day long. Other popular phrases are:

Crazy football
See you tomorrow, goat cheese. (Now she says “See you tomorrow, blue plate”)
More goat cheese. Please, goat cheese.
The moon’s a coming.
Biceps and triceps.
Clean the boo-boo on the butt.
The light’s on!
I’m a crazy Avery.

I could go on with a few more, but these are the ones that stand out right now. Needless to say, this girl truly is crazy, and we’re loving how much fun (usually) she is.

With the increased fun/craziness, means decreased blog posts, or at least shorter in length. Naps are becoming scarce and I’m keeping busy with other things. But don’t worry, I’ll be around to post updates when possible and even share product reviews, workout ideas, and maybe even recipes.

Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season so far with more good times ahead! Oh, and here, Avery wanted to say bye-bye with Lamby.

Life, Parenting

Weekend Camping Trip Part 3: A Dramatic Return

10/27/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

We didn’t hang around too long the day of our return from camping. Our time together without a kid was wonderful, but we were ready to see our little girl….and take real showers. Yeah yeah, only one day, I know.

Besides, if you read Part 2 of our Weekend Camping Trip, you’d know it’s not like we were free from kids anyway. Obviously, our kid is way better than any other, so if we’re going to be surrounded with little tots, it may as well be our own.

We did take advantage of not having Avery with us to *gasp* go to Costco and grab a few essentials, but then it was straight home from there. The trip home was uneventful and fairly quick compared to driving through Friday rush hour to get to our site.

Upon our return home, G-Ma and Avery greeted us at the front door. Avery yelled “daddy”, which warmed my heart, but she wore a frown on her face, which cooled my heart down a little. At least my wonderful mom had a big smile as she held our sweet girl.

As it turns out, Avery was playing on the couch and happened to get her arm stuck between the cushions somehow and twisted it. G-Ma came to the rescue and got her unstuck, but Avery went into a dramatic crying frenzy. This happened just before we arrived home. Weird, she never jumps on the couch….oh, wait….

Once we were there, Avery had put a hold on the scream fest and just had her unhappy face on. But, when Kelley tried to hold her, Avery wouldn’t let up, only G-Ma could hold her. No one could touch her hurt arm without sending our tot in another screaming frenzy (which happened a lot), and even when giving her snacks, she made sure to use her good hand.

I’ll be the first to say that I’m quick to waive things off as a non-event, including this one, but my darling wife is always quick to the rescue, no matter the severity. I think it’s sweet, usually, and feel it helps balance my naivety. Without her, Avery’s staph infection could’ve been a lot worse. Mine too for that matter!

Eventually, G-Ma had to get home and the switch was made from G-Ma to Mommy. Yes, crying was involved, a lot of it, but things eventually calmed down. Then they got bad again, then calm, then…well, you get the picture, she was an extremely moody toddler (is that how they all are?) and she continued to nurse that once stuck arm.

Going Mom was worried as any loving mother would be, and I was starting to feel as if something was wrong too, but still not that worried. I wanted to wait and see how it looked the next day since there was no swelling or any other physical sign of injury yet, but Kelley was ready to but a wrist brace on her immediately. I unsuccessfully debated by wife (guys, you always lose, just accept it unlike I seem to do) about the need for a wrist wrap, and found myself in the devil’s lair of grocery stores, Walmart.

After explaining to the little employee boy how to use that plastic thing with numbers to pay for my items since the self-checkout wasn’t working, I finally made it out and back home. I spent 10 minutes trying to decide between two kinds of wraps and ended up getting them both….just to be safe.

I despise Walmart and just driving by one puts me in a bad mood. It didn’t help when I returned home to find Avery sitting with mommy in a slightly chipper mood and using both arms as if nothing was ever wrong. Gahhhhh!! She even fell sound asleep right in mommy’s lap.

I mean, yay, glad all is well, but geez, what kind of timing is that? In her defense, Kelley tried to call but I left in such a hurry that I left my phone at home. So that’s that, our little toddler pulled a quick one on us and made everything think her arm was about to fall off. Even G-Ma was worried sick and feeling guilty once home and remained that way until the next day.

The rest of the day was spent unpacking and eventually getting ourselves clean. We were both relieved nothing serious was wrong with Avery’s arm, if only she would’ve let us know before I went to hell Walmart. At least we knew she would be in good health for Kelley’s 31st birthday the next day, 10/19.

Her actual birthday was fairly relaxed, but I’ll fill you in next time, along with another update.

Has your toddler ever made you feel like they broke something when nothing was wrong at all?

Is your kid a drama king/queen, or mainly calm?

Life, NuttZo, Parenting, WIAW

Daily Toddler Fare + WIAW

10/07/2015 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Happy Hump Day, and therefore, another edition of What I Ate Wednesday! I’ve shared a day of what my toddler eats twice already (first time and second time), and now it’s time for round three.

Feeding Avery isn’t as easy as just a few weeks ago. Apparently, as the get older they get this growing sense of independence and being more self-aware which leads to toddler regression. Our patience levels are being tested on a daily basis, and from what I understand, it’s not going to get better any time soon. Yikes!

Guess now would be a good time to seriously look into meditation. I’ve been interested for a while, but haven’t made the commitment to fully immerse myself in the mindful practice. Any thoughts or advice?

Anyway, lets kick off another round of what my toddler eats in a day. Just as before, we don’t make a lot of substitutions for Avery, so what she eats, is essentially what we eat. Make sure to show some WIAW love and check out the host’s blog as well as everyone’s day of good eats.

Breakfast – Green smoothie leftover from the night before as a starter. Then she had a green banana with cinnamon and sprouted raw pumpkin seeds sprinkled on NuttZo.

Thought I’d give the seeds a shot since she tends to love anything with a crunch (she’ll gnaw on raw onion even!), and it was a huge success!

Snack – Coconut Carrot Zevia Vanilla Pudding that disappeared way too fast. No leftovers for daddy.

Lunch – Coconut curry quinoa and black beans with Wild Planet sardines on top. I’m still amazed that she’ll eat sardines, and even yell “Fishy!” when she sees them.

I didn’t take a picture, but she crunched on a few Go Raw Pizza Flax Snax Crackers after finishing her lunch. I may or may not of had ~~a few~~ the rest of the bag myself.

Since she had quite a bit for lunch, Avery wasn’t too hungry after her nap, so my wife and I spent the non-eating time in a more constructive manner. Selfies with our DSLR camera and a 50 mm lenses.